Two people were shot dead by police as tens of thousands demonstrated against the King of Nepal today.Protesters against King Gyanendra's regime violated a shoot on sight curfew to march towards the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.Witnesses said police opened fire with live and rubber bullets to try to push people back as an estimated 30,000 attempted to enter Kathmandu from the west. Security forces yesterday announced an 18-hour shoot on sight curfew in the capital in an attempt to thwart opposition plans to bring more than 100,000 people onto the ring road for a mass demonstration today. Such a protest would dwarf anything seen in Nepal in recent times, and opposition organisers said they hoped protesters would be able to march on the palace. ... http://www.guardian.co.uk

Relatives of people killed in Russia's Beslan siege pleaded with President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to honor his promise for a thorough investigation. Grieving relatives say they are kept going by the hope they will find the truth about the 2004 siege, when 330 people — half of them children — died after pro-Chechen gunmen seized a school and took hundreds of people hostage. Relatives' pressure groups say official investigations have whitewashed officials who were too corrupt or incompetent to stop the militants seizing the school. Putin promised at a meeting last year he would uncover the truth. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1865725

The US-based group Human Rights Watch says it has heard dozens of credible accounts of torture and beatings by police in East Timor. In a report issued on Wednesday, the group calls on the East Timorese government to take urgent action to prevent such abuse becoming routine. The former Portuguese colony was ruled by Indonesia for nearly 24 years before a UN-sponsored referendum in 1999. East Timorese police chief Paulo Martins denied the torture charges. "We treat our prisoners finely and in line with procedures," the Associated Press news agency quotes him as saying. He urged Human Rights Watch to send him proof of abuse. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4925122.stm

There are fears of fresh violence in the Solomon Islands following the swearing in of a new prime minister. The announcement of Snyder Rini's appointment this week sparked two days of rioting that has left parts of the capital, Honiara, in ruins. The swearing-in ceremony, postponed from Wednesday, went ahead unannounced for fear it could spark more unrest. Hundreds protested, claiming Mr Rini is corrupt and favours Chinese businessmen, charges he denies. Much of Honiara's Chinatown area was razed in the rioting, during which some families were forced to jump from burning buildings. Dozens of Chinese families fled their homes and are now being cared for by the local Red Cross. China is flying in diplomats to arrange shelter for some 500 nationals, an official spokesman in Beijing said. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4925394.stm

Hundreds of people have marched through the Kenyan capital to protest at the brutal killing of an HIV-positive boy. Isaiah Gakuyo was allegedly stabbed to death with a pitch-fork because of his status. Police are hunting his uncle, who was supposedly looking after him. Mr Gakuyo's mother and grandmother had both reportedly died from Aids-related illnesses. Aids activists say the killing highlighted the stigma faced by those living with HIV/Aids in Kenya. At one point, he was looked after by members of Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement after he had reportedly been mistreated by his uncle. The Kenya Times newspaper reports that the boy had to use separate eating utensils from other members of the family. At his funeral, Aids activists urged the police to find the killer but two weeks later, no-one has been arrested. "The boy was facing violence on a daily basis," Inviolata Mwali Mmbwavi, one of the march organisers, who runs a group working with Kenyan Aids victims,...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4925754.stm

Fighting has made it impossible to reach large areas of the Sudanese region of Darfur, the Red Cross says. International Committee of the Red Cross Sudan spokesman Paul Conneally told the BBC that its vehicles are being systematically looted. He said tens of thousands of people had been forced from their homes around the rebel bases in the Marra mountains. Aid workers are trying to help more than two million people, in what the US says is a genocide. Mr Conneally says civilians have fled from towns in the area, which are now patrolled only by the Sudanese army....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4926234.stm